From the kickoff by the Presidents the ball soon changed hands – first penalty to the Uni, their big kick giving them the first forward momentum only to be thwarted by a fine Nobby Clarke tackle. The ball being recycled though and into touch gave the first line out to the Uni., whose long pass needed a frantic chase back by the Presidents to secure good ball; this time it was the Presidents’ turn to show their skills, who went forward with some scrappy, some good, passing into the opposition 22 for the first time, earning a penalty for a knock on. The Presidents scrum proved superior to Uni’s and, with a good driving maul from 10metres out, the excellent scrum half Ross Deyzel, was able to burrow through for the first try of the game, Al Solero making good the conversion 7-0 after 10mins.

Another great kick by Clarke took the Presidents’ deep again but led to some very scrambled rucking and mauling with both sides infringing at times. The following passage of play brought several knock ons from both sides, but with Presidents’ scrummaging being “on song” their possession was good. A feature of the game was some very high, long, successful touch kicking keeping the game going nicely. Handling errors in field, however, were many, with passes going awry, not only slowing down the game but leading to many knock ons and intercepts by both sides.

Uni’s lineout functioned well most of the time with the Presidents’ being less successful generally; a pinched one by Uni led to them running some very good lines to get within feet of the try line only to be thwarted by the storming Presidents hooker, Jack Broddle.

Another scything run by Clarke with good support by the hooker got the Presidents to within 20mt of the line before good tackling by Uni caused a knock on only to be penalised at the scrum for pushing too soon; back to the Presidents who lost no time in sealing their advantage with Ben Cassidy their No 4 going over for the second try of the game between the posts making an easy conversion for Solero. 14-0 at half time.

A spirited Uni side came out in the second half clearly intent on making amends. Some excellent touch kicking and chasing allowed them to, at last, get a real good chance to go for that elusive try line. A penalty against the Presidents for not rolling away gave them that chance and Oliver Stanford the no 10 answered with an excellent try but too far wide for his own conversion attempt, making the score now 14-5.

The next opportunity came again to Uni, with the Presidents’ big no 8 Ian Bassett putting in a great tackle to avert an almost certain running try for the fast Uni wing.

14-5 to the Presidents was to be the final score in a messy but high spirited game with both sides equal in their endeavour.

Man of the Match for the Presidents XV would be scrum half Ross Deyzel for his command at the scrum, very neat low passing from the base, his long kicking to touch and his well worked try.